Microsoft Corporation has declared that customers will not be charged any hidden fees for Windows 10 support in future. This clears a lot of doubt in the minds of customers all over the world who use Windows based operating systems on their devices. There have been a lot of rumors doing the rounds that Microsoft would be making users pay every year for running Windows 10 on their devices.

This kind of speculation arose after many media organizations shared unconfirmed reports about the possibility that Microsoft Corporation may charge an annual fee for their last Windows operating system. This was because of the widespread misreporting of comments from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other top executives, who said that the company was moving away from the business of releasing a new version of operating system every couple of years. They had mentioned that Microsoft would be transitioning towards providing Windows 10 as a service.

Windows 10 operating system will be a platform that users can use on a host of devices like smartphones, tablets, PCs, Xbox One, etc. The focus is on making the environment extremely user friendly with capabilities of hosting multiple devices without technical glitches. It has been confirmed that Microsoft Corporation will not charge an annual fee for running Windows 10, nor will there be any other hidden fee for technical support.

Another key aspect of this clarification is about the fact that the programmers and engineers at Microsoft Corporation will continue working to keep Windows 10 up-to-date. They would be releasing these updates, apps, and patches at regular intervals. There will be no cost involved for getting these updates either. People who are qualified to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 within one year of its worldwide release, will not pay for running the OS on their devices in 2016 or after that.

It must be mentioned that people who currently have authentic, licensed, and non-pirated versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 on their devices are the only ones who will get the free upgrade to Windows 10. Everyone else will have to pay for upgrading to the licensed versions of Windows 10. This includes people who have earlier versions of Windows operating systems on their devices like Windows 98, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. Those who do not own authentic versions, and have pirated or ‘cracked’ versions of Windows 8 or 8.1, will have to pay for upgrading to Windows 10.

There is also a bit of distrust towards the policies of Microsoft Corporation among users. That is the reason why people are looking for that fine print which may allow the company to circumvent, and make the users pay for something in the future. Everybody is watchful about that ‘gotcha’ moment because of Microsoft Corporation’s historic ruthless reputation. This suspicion about the company’s policies comes from previous experience of Office 365. Nobody wants to pay an annual fee to continue running the OS ,and receiving updates for Windows 10 like the annual subscription charges for Microsoft Office 365.

Microsoft Corporation had to issue a statement to contradict such rumors and conspiracy theories. The statement issued as a clarification explains that Microsoft Corporation will continue to keep a Windows device up-to-date for the supported lifetime, once it is qualified and upgraded to Windows 10. The company will then introduce new functionality and features over a period of time, as well as keep the device secure for absolutely no additional charge.

For people wondering what supported lifetime of the device means, it is one of those terms that provide a lot of ambiguity. It has not been clarified by executives at Microsoft Corporation, if it means that the company would stop proving updates, and security patches after a certain number of years or months. It certainly means that the support will not be provided for the entire lifetime of the device. It could be something that is targeted more towards smartphones than PCs. It is known that in the recent past, Microsoft Corporation provided a 36 months support to Windows Phone 8.1. Though, a similar strategy could be applied to PCs and other devices.

However, the criterion of deciding the supported lifetime of PCs has not been revealed yet. It could be three to five years, or the duration of the warranty, or could even be decided by OEMs. As mentioned, the representatives at Microsoft Corporation have refused to explain the term ‘supported lifetime’ any further. It will be very surprising if Microsoft Corporation cuts off the functionality of the device or denies access to one’s PC after it runs out of its supported lifetime. A step like that would mean that users would suddenly lose all their personal files, documents, and photos on the PC.

A guess that the company could integrate One Drive is not very far-fetched. Another scenario could be that a PC out of its supported lifetime could lose its feature updates, security patches, and run similar to Windows XP. A final scenario could be that the user may be required to pay Microsoft Corporation to extend this ‘supported lifetime’ of his PC, something similar to extending warranties of PCs. However, Microsoft Corporation needs to clear these doubts as they have declared that users will not be charged any hidden fees for future Windows 10 support.